I appreciate the benefits of technology, but can’t help to question its unstoppable and imminent expansion to every aspect of our lives.
Earlier this month, I attended a meeting where we talked about a not so distant future, in which choosing our child’s gender, height and intellectual capabilities will be the norm. This week I read an article on the use of artificial intelligence to “hyper-personalize” our food. I also follow closely the progress made by “clean meat” entrepreneurs and know that it will be a reality in a matter of years. All thanks to technology.
We spend up to five hours a day on our mobile devices and more than half of them are destined to social media. The time spent on apps has increased almost 70 per cent year-over-year.
I say we’re online but not connected. The more connected we are, the less regular visits we pay to ourselves, would say the Persian poet Rumi. This disconnect and the fact that technology has become “our” world, hinder our capacity to make peace with food and our bodies. We’re in auto-mode. We want to look like those “women on Instagram” and eat what “that app is telling us to”. Technology is filtering what we experience as reality and preventing us from experiencing “the call of a more primal truth.”
Here are three things we can do to reconnect:
Go for a walk without your phone.
We’ve figured out how to bike and cross streets while looking at our phones. For me, that’s natural selection and adaption in action! I propose we get into the habit of going for walks and leave our phone behind. It will feel weird at first, because we’re habituated to multi-tasking and taking photos or videos of every single thing we experience. Take that phone-less time to be with yourself.
Checking your phone shouldn’t be the first thing you do in the morning.
Even better, don’t sleep with your phone close to you. Not only will it be safer, but you’ll also decrease the dependency and start will start to “feel” yourself in the morning. Make it a ritual. Make it a “sacred” moment just for you. Think of using your phone before you get out of bed, as smoking a cigarette as soon as you open your eyes. Yaics.
Take photos…with your senses.
It may sound cheesy, but it’s a powerful thing because it’s simple, neutral and free (it also has the power to change the shape of your brain, but more on that later). Stop and smell the roses, the saying goes. Lat week I was walking behind a guy who did that and then wished me a great day. He was also walking slowly. Simple but real. He didn’t take photos to share it on Instagram not took a selfie to share on Facebook. He literally stopped and experienced it.
If I could create a puzzle out of food freedom, I would make awareness and mindfulness a big piece of it. Very often, we go to the food because we don’t want to feel something. We resist, so we eat. We must reconnect and be with those unpleasant emotions and feelings we’ve been trained to reject. Technology not always helps. Leave your phone behind and pay a visit to yourself.
The information provided on this post is for educational and informational purposes only and solely as a self-help tool for your own use.
Written by Lina Salazar.